August 31, 2007

Professional Panning Tactics DVD

Filed under: Reviews — ted @ 6:40 am
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Professional Panning Tactics DVD

A New Gold Panning Video

It’s said that every gold mining project begins and ends with a gold pan. Panning is basic to gold mining, a skill that every gold miner, regardless of his method of recovery should have. It will be used as the testing device and the cleanup device regardless method. Dredgers, drywashers, sluicers and even metal detectorists and hardrockers use the gold pan.

J.K. Lyon, in his new Gold Panning DVD Professional Panning Tactics, introduces the gold pan as a production tool. He clearly shows how you can move a large amount of material in a short amount of time with just a gold pan, a screen, a pick, a snuffer bottle and of course his patented goldtube. Don’t get it wrong. This Gold Panning Video is not a smokescreen for a Goldtube advertisement. In the segment that he does use the tube, he recovers a single flake that would have been missed without the tube. Now, even though I’ve personally witnessed the Goldtube recover ALOT of gold that would have been missed and I’m quite certain John has done the same, it stands as it is. What you’ll witness in this demonstration is exactly what would have happened if the cameras had not been running. There is no salting and no B.S. What John does is simply go about the business of showing you the most efficient method of panning I’ve seen so far. He shows the area he intends to work and the simple reason why it was chosen and then over the course of an hour, he proceeds to move about 600 pounds of material in 25 pans at a rate of about 35-40 seconds per pan! In the hours time he pans, he becoms $20 richer in placer gold while explaining his methods to you continuously in a very unassuming manner.

I’ve seen a lot of panners work in my day and in my opinion John’s methods and tools are superior. He’s got the most efficient methods for classifying, stratification and cleanup that I have seen. John uses his method perhaps 25 times in the video ( plus a couple for demonstration) and so after viewing it once, I felt I could easily apply the techniques on the creek. Now, without as much practice as John has had I might not be as fast as his 35-40 second pans but having gone out to the creek to actually try the techniques, I felt great about them. The panning was suddenly the least time consuming aspect of the project and that left more time to dig and move material and thus, more placer gold in the snuffer bottle. I was able to easily run a full pan of about 25 pounds of material in 2 minutes or less and that included cleanup. When I say cleanup, that’s what I mean. John’s video shows exactly how to clean up quickly and to snuff gold with NO BLACK SAND at all. Throw the spiral pans and other expensive cleanup tools in the trash. Indeed, it was the first time I went home with no black sand at all in my snuffer and it was easy to do.

So, if you want to be able to run full pans and fast as you can fill them with a technique that, with practice will allow you to do so in less that a minute with a black sand free cleanup, you need to get John’s Professional Panning Tactics DVD. It’s worth several viewing as there are subtle techniques that can be picked up on through close observation. Taped during this summer’s monsoon season, there is even an exciting segment when a roaring monsoon flood puts the panning session to an end only to be resumed the following day where more rich gold bearing material has been redeposited on the same bedrock.

Right now there is a second video in pre production called “Bedrock Tactics” which will go into more detail regarding prospecting bedrock for fines, pickers and nuggets. I’ll be sure to give that one a full review as well. If it’s as good as Professional Panning Tactics, this series is a winner.

Here is the short segment from the DVD where John uses the Goldtube:

 

youtube

August 13, 2007

A Trip to the Local Mining Shop

Filed under: Home — ted @ 2:38 am
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Hey all. I walked into Russ Ford’s shop just the other day and found a couple of interesting things. For one, there was a sign on the door that stated that as of August 31st 2007 the location would be closed. “BUY IT NOW”. So, for all you who like to buy from Russ I’d say now is the time. I’m sure there are some good deals to be had on all kinds of great equipment. Russ is a great guy and while I’ll miss having the shop there, (unless of course you buy it and run it) I wish Russ the best. He’s going to go out and do fun things like hunt for placer gold and stuff. Smart guy in my opinion.

Speaking of smart guys, when I was at Russ Ford’s I saw a new product available that I found very intriguing. J.K. Lyon who many of you know as being one of the most successful panners on the Lynx creek and the inventor of the 1/4″ dredge also known as the Goldtube has made a new gold panning video called “Professional Panning Tactics” Here is a short clip from YouTube:

 

John’s gold panning video is sure to be great and I’m sure there will be great information for all types of gold prospectors, not just gold panners. A full review of the DVD is in the works so check back often, I should have it up soon.

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